"Should bride price be abolished?"
"No, because a lot of men would take women for granted."
This was the reply an overwhelming amount of women gave to this demeaning practice.
You see, I waited 15 years for my mother to learn how to treat me right.
I waited 9 years for men to learn how to treat me right.
I waited 16 years for my friends to learn how to treat me right.
And now that I'm 27, I do not want to wait any longer for anybody to treat me right because I will tell them right from the beginning: "This is how I want to be treated and if you can't do it, please take a walk."
The average Nigerian women would rather be treated like property than actually stand up and set a standard for herself.
"It's too difficult. Let's wait for the men to realise that they are wrong."
Yes, let's wait for the men to realise that we can't go on like this, like the Americans realised that slavery was wrong. It only took them 200 years. 200 years for it to be abolished legally and more than half of a century for it to be abolished de facto because blacks were still being treated like slaves not until 50 years ago.
My heart bleeds for the Nigerian woman. I'm in pain because yesterday I came to the awful realisation that my fight for female emancipation is for myself alone.
These women are not interested in my talks.
They don't want to fight.
They want the men who erected patriarchy to also demolish it.
They are deluded.
I could say even stupid.
Since the sudden realisation that I'm a lone ranger, I have come to this decision: I won't allow any bride price to be paid on my head and I won't submit to any human being who was born of a woman like me.
This is my personal feminism: it's mine and only.
Dear Nigerian woman, I wish you 200 blissful years of waiting.
Bye.
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